Becoming American : the African American quest for civil rights, 1861-1976

Scholars continue to differ over when African Americans' struggle for civil rights began--as well as whether it has actually ended. In the long-awaited volume in our illustrious American History Series, Daniel Aldridge presents a critical and analytical study of the many different leaders and organizations, with special attention to the largely unsung ones whom most student readers never hear about, whose efforts eventually overturned the South's legal and extralegal system of racial discrimination known as Jim Crow, radically transforming society in that blacks fully became part of the American nation. Regardless of one's point of view, no one can dispute that African Americans' long but successful quest for civil rights stands as one of the defining elements in United States history.

Becoming American makes ideal reading for courses on the history of the Civil Rights movement as well as a superb supplement to survey courses in African American and United States history.

• Preface and Acknowledgments p. xi
• Chapter 1 Emancipation, Reconstruction, and the Origins of the African American Quest for Civil Rights p. 1
• The Civil War and Emancipation p. 1
• The Origins of Reconstruction p. 7
• Radical Reconstruction p. 17
• The End of Reconstruction p. 28
• African American Responses to the End of Reconstruction p. 35
• Chapter 2 The New Black Leadership of the Post-Reconstruction Era, 1890--1910 p. 41
• Ida B. Wells and the Campaign against Lynching p. 41
• Disfranchisement and the Rise of Jim Crow p. 46
• The Age of Booker T. Washington p. 50
• W.E.B. Du Bois and the Rise of the Radicals p. 65
• Chapter 3 From the Margins to the Mainstream, 1910--1930 p. 74
• The Great Migration p. 74
• The Origins of the NAACP p. 78
• African Americans and World War I p. 86
• A Philip Randolph, Marcus Garvey, and the New Black Politics of the 1920s p. 96
• Chapter 4 Civil Rights in the New Deal Era, 1930--1945 p. 114
• The Scottsboro Case, African Americans, and the Communist Party p. 114
• The New Generation of the NAACP p. 124
• African Americans, the New Deal, and the Democratic Party p. 131
• The National Negro Congress and the March on Washington Movement p. 147
• Civil Rights during World War II p. 159
• Chapter 5 A Shifting of the Tide: Civil Rights in Postwar America, 1945--1955 p. 169
• Black Resistance and Racial Liberation p. 169
• The Journey of Reconciliation and the Origins of Nonviolent Direct Action p. 177
• The Cold War, the NAACP, and the 1948 Election p. 180
• Race, Culture, and Society in Postwar America p. 192
• The Brown Decision p. 196
• Chapter 6 The Civil Rights Revolution Begins, 1955--1962 p. 208
• The Montgomery Bus Boycott p. 208
• School Desegragation and the White Backlash p. 220
• The Southern Christian Leadership Conference p. 226
• The Sit-In Movement and the Origins of SNCC p. 228
• The Freedom Rides and the Kennedy Administration p. 234
• The Albany Defeat p. 243
• Chapter 7 The Civil Rights Revolution Triumphs, 1963--1965 p. 252
• The Birmingham Campaign p. 252
• The March on Washington and the Civil Rights Act p. 263
• Mississippi Summer and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party p. 271
• Selma and the Voting Rights Act p. 284
• Chapter 8 Black Power and the End of the Civil Rights Era p. 293
• Urban Riots and Inner City Poverty p. 293
• Malcolm X and the Resurgence of Black Nationalist Populism p. 299
• Black Power and the Decline of SNCC p. 306
• The Center Cannot Hold: The Last Years of Martin Luther King p. 312
• Things Fall Apart: The End of the Civil Right Era p. 320
• Conclusion Thoughts p. 332
• Bibliographical Essay p. 342
• Index p. 354